Male doctors earn £15,000 a year more than women, study reveals

The BMA's report is the first to investigate differences in doctors' salaries. Photograph: Smith Collection/Getty Images

Female doctors working in the NHS are paid thousands of pounds a year less than their male colleagues as a result of widespread discrimination and a "hostile culture" at work, a study reveals.

There is an average salary gap of £15,245 between men and women among the UK's 135,000 medics, according to a report by the British Medical Association. After excluding differences owing to age, experience and area of specialism, the study found that female consultants typically earn £5,500 less than their male peers and female junior doctors' pay is around £2,000 below that of their male counterparts. The research, to be published on Friday, is the first to investigate differences in doctors' salaries.

"Our results show that men and women with identical experience and expertise are paid differently – which suggests evidence of discrimination," concludes the report, which has been funded by the BMA, the Higher Education Funding Council for England, Imperial College London and the Medical Women's Federation.

The study examined the pay of 1,015 doctors working for the NHS, in medical research at academic institutions, and for organisations such as private healthcare providers. While part of the pay gap is due to age and experience, between 40% and 50% of the difference is caused by discrimination, the study found.

One of the report's authors, Dr Anita Holdcroft, emeritus professor of anaesthesia at Imperial, accused male NHS managers of taking advantage of the poor negotiating power of women. Referring to what the report describes as a "hostile culture", she gave the example of women with children who have limited room to manoeuvre because managers know they are unlikely to uproot their family and move elsewhere. By contrast, men can win pay rises by threatening to leave.

"The man will often recognise the weakness of the woman's negotiating position because she has children and so can't move," she said. "Discrimination is the only way that we can explain the gender pay gap."

Among Britain's 40,521 consultants, men on average earn £13,729 more than similarly successful female colleagues. That pay gap worsens the longer a female consultant has worked. Although more female than male consultants earn between £62,500 and £95,000, more men than women have salaries between £110,000 and £190,000.

While women are less likely to hold high-level positions or be as involved in professional organisations, this explains only about 59% of the gap. "The remainder is due to differences in treatment for the same characteristics," the report says.

Dr Helen Goodyear, a consultant paediatrician at Heartlands hospital in Birmingham and president of the Medical Women's Federation, said: "It's endemic in the NHS – women not being paid the same as similarly experienced, similarly talented male counterparts."

The authors say their findings, coupled with the gender equality duty introduced in 2007, should prompt bodies that employ doctors to undertake salary reviews or more wide-ranging pay audits.

NHS Employers, which employs the NHS's 1.4m staff in England, said gender pay gaps were an important issue, but declined to comment on the report. The Department of Health said male and female doctors should be paid equally.